I cannot imagine a GEOS user who has not suffered the slings and arrows of de-archival programs that just don't understand and respect GEOS disks and files. It's bad enough that we have to go through a CONVERT/DE-CONVERT process for our files, but if we run a Commodore program that De-Arcs, De-Librarys, De-Lynxes, De-Anythings an archived file on a disk with GEOS files, damage is almost certain to occur. One end result of all this is that GEOS users often upload files individually instead of in archived form.

geoPack solves at least part of this problem. While it does not compact files for transmission, the way a program like Arc can, it does allow GEOS users to Lynx a batch of file together for uploading so that the downloader only has to deal with one file. This is not only more convenient, but avoids the possibility of not getting all the files he needs. And since geoPack is a GEOS application, it understands GEOS files and headers, and will not corrupt a GEOS disk or the GEOS files on it.

What's more, geoPack has included a CONVERT routine so that everything that needs to be done for file transmission is accomplished in one step. The final charm is that geoPack will run on any drive, including RAM drive. This means you can "Pack" or "UnPack" files in record time. Since it is a GEOS program, it utilizes icons and dialog boxes for the ultimate in user friendliness.

geoPack will allow you to select as many files from a disk as you want for packing. This is done with a multi-file dialog box, so you just go through and click the files you want to pack for transmission. As you might expect, you are allowed to swap disks and drives, and geoPack accesses all three drives. Once you've chosen all the files you want to pack, you click the PACK icon, and geoPack goes to work. It inspects each file to determine whether it is a GEOS file. If it is, it CONVERTS it into a Commodore type file. Then it packs all the files you have chosen into one file, for which you provide a filename. geoPack then adds a ".LNX" filename extension so that it is recognizable as a Lynxed file. This file is now ready for transmission. The person who downloads this file can de-lynx it with any program that de-lynxes files, including Omega Q. Of course, if he uses anything other than geoPack, he faces the very problems that geoPack was designed to overcome.

The UNPACK routines is just as easy to use. You select a file for de-lynxing, click the UNPACK icon, and geoPack dissolves the files, then DE-CONVERTS any converted GEOS files it finds. Imagine how long that would take without geoPack. You would have to dissolve the file on a disk that did not contain GEOS files, boot GEOS, copy the files to a GEOS disk, then DE-CONVERT them one at a time. If you happen to be a GEOTERM user, you would have to exit GEOS first, then go through all these steps.

Incidentally, geoPack can also be used as a CONVERT program without Lynxing files. If you select only one GEOS file to PACK, geoPack just converts it into a Commodore type file. It will also De-CONVERT files that have not been Lynxed.

I should point out that geoPack V2.0 had a bug that caused problems when used with 1581 drives. Version 2.1 has proved to be reliable with 1541, 1571, 1581, and RAM versions of all these drives.